Monday, August 29, 2011

Update: 9/2/11:
From the Flames Town-hall Fan Forum, here's Feaster's response to a fan's question about which No. 1 centers the Flames are currently targeting:

“I’m not going to sit here and say that we have a legitimate No. 1 centreman. We don’t. We have players who can slot in there. But we’re still obviously searching and we’re in the market for a No. 1 centre.”

Nevertheless, Feaster seems to be taking a passive approach until the start of the season with regard to any new deals at this point, as he explained during an interview regarding the Langkow trade:

"Well you know what, obviously we never say never, but its not as though there's something we're actively going out there and saying...lets sign this particular free agent, or there's a deal that's pending for anybody. Having that in our pocket, having that space -- I've said this all along -- I still think there are going to be opportunities come training camp, whether its via trade or the waiver wire. I think once the season starts, you start to see things shake out in that first month or so, i think there will deals that can be done. And if you don't have the space, you're not even a participant, you're not even a player. For us now to have the space, we have more options, more felxibility." [see 3:35 mark of below video]

Even with the Langkow deal, he stated PHX came to him not the other way around.

Daymond Langkow

Update 8/29/11:
@kausatoday Kevin Allen Twitter: The hold-up in the Langkow trade: the player going to Calgary has not been notified.

Considering Calgary's need at RW, the player coming back for Daymond Langkow is likely either Lee Stempniak or Taylor Pyatt.

The PHX deal does indeed involve RW Lee Stempniak. He'll fill a hole on that side of the forward corps. Stempniak is mostly an even-strength minutes player, meaning he should take away time from any of the existing PP and PK forwards.

He can be used either on the second or third line and comes with a cap hit of $1.9M. That still leaves CGY with $4M in cap space to go after other improvements. Teams that remain over the cap include BUF. Players available there have to include forward Brad Boyes and defenseman Shaone Morrisonn.

At the same time, with so much cap space now, CGY doesn't necessarily need to get rid of its overpaid thirdliners including Niklas Hagman. They can wait for him to regain some value (if possible) before trying to force any trade. CGY GM Jay Feaster said about Hagman during a TV interview just today:

Niklas Hagman

"I was talking to our strength coach, he's been telling me he's been seaking with the trainer that Nik Hagman has been using this summer. The trainer commented that he can't believe the progress that Nik has made."

And with so many UFAs among the forwards next summer, Feaster is likely counting on even Matt Stajan to have a bounce back season. Feaster will probably only deal Stajan if he fails again to live up to his multi-year contract.

Calgary Flames

Left Wing

Cap

GP

P

TOI

Center

Cap

GP

P

TOI

Right Wing

Cap

GP

P

TOI

Jarome Iginla

$7.0

82

86

20:56

Olli Jokinen

$3.0

79

54

17:46

Alex Tanguay

$3.5

79

69

19:45

Curtis Glencross

$2.6

79

43

16:14

Brend. Morrison

$1.3

66

43

16:41

Rene Bourque

$3.3

80

50

17:45

Niklas Hagman

$3.0

71

27

13:38

Matthew Stajan

$3.5

76

31

14:13

Lee Stempniak

$1.9

82

38

15:15

T. Kostopoulos

$0.9

76

18

12:20

Mikael Backlund

$1.3

73

25

12:04

David Moss

$1.3

58

30

13:41

Tim Jackman

$0.6

82

23

9:49

P.L. Leblond

$0.5

2

0

3:27

Left Defense

Cap

GP

P

TOI

Right Defense

Cap

GP

P

TOI

Goal

Cap

GP

W

SV%

J. Bouwmeester

$6.7

82

24

25:59

Scott Hannan

$1.0

78

11

19:47

Miikka Kiprusoff

$5.8

Mark Giordano

$4.0

82

43

23:08

Cory Sarich

$3.6

76

17

17:52

Henrik Karlsson

$0.9

Chris Butler

$1.3

49

9

18:10

Anton Babchuk

$2.5

82

35

16:20

Brett Carson

$0.6

19

0

11:26

Pos

Not Included

Cap

GP

P

TOI

F

Lance Bouma

$0.7

16

1

5:52

F

Greg Nemisz

$1.0

6

1

5:05

F

Sven Baertschi

$1.5

WHL

D

T.J. Brodie

$0.7

3

0

16:00

D

B. Mikkelson

$0.7

24

2

14:13

Salary Cap

$64,300,000

LTIR

Raitis Ivanans

$0.6

1

0

8:20

Cap Payroll

$60,069,208

Nigel Dawes

$0.1

Buyout

Cap Space

$4,230,792

23 players

Carry-Ovr Bns

10K

Pnlty

Floor Clearance

$11,769,208

$48.3M

Roster Bonuses

$0.8

Total

Original article continued:

Now that the Calgary Flames have dealt center Daymond Langkow back to the Phoenix, assuming no other roster players are involved, Calgary has some $6M in cap space. Not a team to avoid spending to the cap limit, I would guess the Jay Feaster is in the market for some players. With their abundance of centers now paired down to a manageable level, the Flames could use an upgrade on the wing.

After a close look at the roster, the place where they could use some additional help would be at right wing. Currently due to the depth at left wing, I have Curtis Glencross swapping sides in order to give him the minutes he's accustomed to. A more ideal scenario would be getting a natural right winger on the second line. The fellow I have in mind is none other than Brad Boyes.

Brad Boyes

Boyes has been supplanted on the Buffalo Sabres roster by Drew Stafford. And considering the Sabres are over the cap space limit (because of an earlier trade with Calgary this off-season that involved Alex Kotalik and Robyn Regehr).

Boyes is accustomed to playing 17 minutes a game on average. He is a right shooting forward who could have been the one going to PHX in a trade, had he been able to play center as well he does the right wing. Instead, he could very well be headed to Calgary in what would essentially amount to a three-way trade.

He would give the Flames the ability to deploy two solid scoring lines, and because of the depth, would allow them to squeeze more goals out of the third line as well.

Calgary Flames

Left Wing

Cap

GP

P

TOI

Center

Cap

GP

P

TOI

Right Wing

Cap

GP

P

TOI

Jarome Iginla

$7.0

82

86

20:56

Olli Jokinen

$3.0

79

54

17:46

Alex Tanguay

$3.5

79

69

19:45

Rene Bourque

$3.3

80

50

17:45

Brend. Morrison

$1.3

66

43

16:41

Curtis Glencross

$2.6

79

43

16:14

Niklas Hagman

$3.0

71

27

13:38

Matthew Stajan

$3.5

76

31

14:13

David Moss

$1.3

58

30

13:41

Tim Jackman

$0.6

82

23

9:49

Mikael Backlund

$1.3

73

25

12:04

T. Kostopoulos

$0.9

76

18

12:20

P.L. Leblond

$0.5

2

0

3:27

Left Defense

Cap

GP

P

TOI

Right Defense

Cap

GP

P

TOI

Goal

Cap

GP

W

SV%

J. Bouwmeester

$6.7

82

24

25:59

Scott Hannan

$1.0

78

11

19:47

Miikka Kiprusoff

$5.8

Mark Giordano

$4.0

82

43

23:08

Cory Sarich

$3.6

76

17

17:52

Henrik Karlsson

$0.9

Chris Butler

$1.3

49

9

18:10

Anton Babchuk

$2.5

82

35

16:20

B. Mikkelson

$0.7

24

2

14:13

Brett Carson

$0.6

19

0

11:26

Pos

Not Included

Cap

GP

P

TOI

F

Lance Bouma

$0.7

16

1

5:52

F

Greg Nemisz

$1.0

6

1

5:05

F

Sven Baertschi

$1.5

WHL

D

T.J. Brodie

$0.7

3

0

16:00

Salary Cap

$64,300,000

LTIR

Raitis Ivanans

$0.6

1

0

8:20

Cap Payroll

$58,890,208

Nigel Dawes

$0.1

Buyout

Cap Space

$5,409,792

23 players

Carry-Ovr Bns

10K

Pnlty

Floor Clearance

$10,590,208

$48.3M

Roster Bonuses

$0.8

Total

The defense was already bolstered some weeks ago by the addition of Scott Hannan and looks set satisfactorily deep (though not necessarily very fast overall). Regarding the burly blueliner, I tweeted previously...

...GM Jay Feaster seemed to confirm this theory during a TV interview (see below) that Hannan seemed to take a discount to play closer to home, which for him is Kelowna BC (less than an hour away from Calgary by air):

"He was willing to sign, you know, for us a cap friendly deal. And candidly, he and his agent had indicated that there were a number of different directions that they could have gone in terms of signing. And so we're just pleased to have him under contract and part of the organization."

Brendan Morrison was in the same boat last season. Cut loose by WSH, Morrison signed with CGY at a discount to play closer to home (VAN). Also living in Kelowna during the off-season is Hannan's new teammate Jarome Iginla, who may have played a part in any recruiting efforts by CGY. In fact, here's Feaster possibly confirming the referral:

"We talked to someone recently who sees (Hannan) every summer, who commented to Brent (Sutter) that he's never seen him in better shape than he is in right now -- and he's excited about coming to Calgary."

Either way, CGY GM Jay Feaster has certainly put his own stamp on this new edition of the Calgary Flames.